Dylan Jones is Editor of GQ and fashion biannual GQ Style. Follow him on Twitter at @dylanjonesgq

Wednesday 17 May 2017

The most important thing about David Hepworth's marvellous new book, Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars, isn't the litany of often well-worn stories it contains, nor is it the often beautifully way it is written, and not - incidentally - is it Hepworth's rather brilliant ability to squeeze yet more juice out of the by-now exhaustively pummelled rock and roll lemon, it's his unabashed declaration that the narrative arc of modern rock music is reaching its end.

He's right. As the likes of David Bowie, George Michael and Prince shuffle off this mortal coil, they are not being replaced in our hearts by their modern-day equivalents, they are being replaced by the somewhat less stellar stars of yesteryear, simply because they are still around. Seriously, would Leonard Cohen have been so venerated in his latter years if Bob Dylan were more accessible? Would ELO have been afforded such a successful comeback if the Beatles had still been around?

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We celebrate those on the margins of the golden age of rock because we know it is coming to an end. As Hepworth points out at the beginning and end of this wonderful book, the music world is now steered almost exclusively by hip-hop stars, soul-baring divas and the mayflies of TV talent shows.

The age of the rock star is over, and Hepworth's never-less-than fascinating book is a more than fitting farewell.

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